(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a fruit harvesting robot hand, and more particularly to a fruit harvesting robot hand comprising a cylindrical case for taking in fruit provided with a plurality of fruit detecting sensors around an opening thereof.
(2) Description of the Related Art
An example of known fruit harvesting robot hand is shown in FIG. 4 of the accompanying drawings, which robot hand has been proposed by present Applicant and is disposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 58-144586. The illustrated construction includes a cylindrical case 9' for taking in fruit provided with a plurality of fruit detecting contact sensors 11' around an opening thereof to obtain information on the basis of which the robot hand is operated to bring the case 9' to a position to each an objective fruit. The robot hand is positionally adjusted in response to the information provided by the plurality of contact sensors 11' regarding its position relative to the objective fruit, and the fruit is captured when the fruit is in position centrally of the opening of the cylindrical case 9'.
However, where fruits are growing very close to one another, this prior art construction has the contact sensors 11' come into contact with not only an objective fruit but also other adjacent fruits at the same time, whereby the objective fruit cannot be discriminated from the other fruits and thus an operational error occurs. In other words, the prior art construction has a disadvantage of lacking in precision in guiding the robot hand to a proper position relative to the objective fruit or of poor working efficiency even if the robot hand is guided to a proper position.